Alabama

Stranger returns purse left on Chicago "L" via mail

submitted photoTwo weeks after leaving her pursing an a Chicago "L" train, Nancy Pierce was surprised to get it returned to her in the mail.

MOBILE, Alabama -- Minutes after exiting Chicago’s elevated train, known as the "L," Nancy Pierce was in a panic. She realized that she’d left her purse, with her cash, credit cards, iPhone, even her favorite, dangly silver earrings, on the train.

Pierce, a former television news anchor turned spokeswoman for Mobile County schools, had taken the L from the airport to her hotel to save money on a cab.

When the train doors flew open at her downtown stop, she hurriedly grabbed her suitcase and backpack, thinking she had her purse, too.

But it was still on the floor near where she’d been sitting.

She sought help from a public transportation worker stationed in a booth. He phoned the train, but the brown-and-beige purse with the big buckle was nowhere to be seen.

"Very dejectedly, I walked to my hotel, two blocks away," she said. She had only a suitcase tag as an ID, she said, "and not a penny to my name."

Pierce wasn’t ready to give up hope entirely. She filed a police report, and checked in with the city’s lost-and-found each of the five days she was in Chicago for a conference.

She wound up leaving without her purse, navigating through airport security with copies of her driver’s license, birth certificate and Social Security card — which her husband, Barry Silverman, had faxed — and a prescription medicine bottle with her name and address.

Two weeks later, a large UPS box arrived at her Oakleigh neighborhood home.

It had a note, scribbled in black magic marker: "I’m sorry it took so long to send back, the UPS office is closed by the time I get off work and I only have Wednesday off."

Silverman, who was home when UPS made the delivery, guessed that it might be the purse, but also wondered whether his wife had ordered something from Chicago.

So he shook the box. "There was lots of stuff rattling around in there," Silverman said.

He called Pierce, who was at work, and opened the box with her on the phone.

"I said ‘It’s my purse.’ I knew immediately it was my purse," Pierce said. "Everything was in there, except the money. I was tickled."

Inside, a note read, "Ms. Pierce, I found your purse on the train (red line), Saturday, 7/7/12. I’m sorry if anything is missing."

Pierce believes that someone on the train found the unattended purse, quickly snatched the cash inside, and left everything else.

She’s been trying to reach the woman who returned her purse and whose phone number was included in the note. She wants to thank her, and reimburse her for the shipping.

"I was so excited, and so touched that this woman would do this," Pierce said. "It certainly restored my faith in people, and made it even stronger. I know there are really good people in this world."

She said she hopes to return to Chicago, one of her favorite cities, and that she’ll even ride the L again. "I’ll just make sure I have a purse with a long strap on it," she said.